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From the Newscenter...

Last year, Rochester’s Solar Splash team didn’t even make it to the college championships solar and electric boating. This year, a renewed focus on data science saw the team take home awards for innovation and most improved team.

Jesse Wang’s dual doctorates in medicine and translational biomedical science will position him to ease the burdens of e-records for his fellow physicians. His prototype of a virtual assistant is a finalist in the American College of Physicians' "Innovation Challenge."

Imagine if lie-detection apps became widely available on everyone’s phones or computers. Computer scientist Ehsan Hoque will use a new $1 million grant to explore the benefits and ethical risks of this type of tech.

A Twitter spat ended up causing a science fiction writer to lose his job. Rochester political scientist Bethany Lacina used data science to show how the incident was in part fueled by bots and "sockpuppets."

In an analysis of thousands of tweets from Star Wars fans, associate professor of political science Bethany Lacina found that offensive language doubled and hate speech jumped by 60 percent when those tweets were directed at actress Kelly Marie Tran or her character Rose Tico, the first nonwhite female lead character in the franchise.

Trained as an economist with 20 years of experience at the Federal Reserve, Sandra (San) Cannon’s job is to help the University make better use of the data generated by hundreds of offices and departments.